Just the facts mam

This story sound familiar to anyone?  Seems hard to just get the proper info from Chase customer service.

I had a very frustrating experience with Chase bank yesterday.

I wanted to pay down the balance of our home equity line of credit to zero. I did not want to close the account.

The pay down amount isn’t obvious on their web site, so I called their customer service.

The woman I talked to was clearly a script reading drone, as she could not give me JUST the information I wanted. She had to give me ALL the information that showed up on her screen.

The balance on the account was about $60 plus some variable interest.

The first amount she told me was to close the account entirely (which I explicitly told her I did not need) was around $500. This included the early termination fee.

The next amount she gave me was (supposed to be) the amount to bring the balance to zero. She quoted me $400!

I explained that the amount she gave me could not be right because my current balance was only $60.

So she had to log back into the account to get the breakdown. Since the call had already gone on for 25 minutes, I just told her to forget it and I would calculate the amount myself.

Back on their website I finally found the variable interest that was due: $0.46.

Unfortunately the website would not let me pay the full amount … I had to pay the current balance first, then pay the variable interest.

The last time I wanted to do this I was unable to make a payment less than $1 … So I had to make a $1 withdrawal so I could pay a little more than $1.

This time it let me pay the .46 without jumping through hoops.

I like many of the services Chase offers, but their phone customer service leaves a lot to be desired.

3 Comments

  • By coakl, January 10, 2011 @ 9:48 am

    The paydown amount isn’t listed on the computer system used by the call center or the in-branch workers either. Chase’s internal systems are very poorly designed and confuse employees as badly as customers viewing the external website.

    I think you were looking for the “payoff” amount but that is manually calculated as part of a closure. You don’t want the call center to go down that path because they will assume you want it closed. It only takes a misplaced click of the mouse to create a disaster.

    Just pay the current balance and don’t tempt fate.

  • By Jerry, January 11, 2011 @ 2:27 pm

    On my Chase home equity account I can see the accrued daily interest by clicking on “Account Details”. The interest due is listed under “Home Equity Line of Credit Summary”.

  • By Unhappy Chase Customer, January 26, 2011 @ 7:05 am

    I am having difficulty getting payoff information to close out my loan. I have not been able to obtain the official, written form that I need for my lawyer. I have had poor experiences with customer service. A team leader even hung up on me!

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